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Subject: NEWS: H-Museum News Digest (USA, UK)


[Editor's note: The following articles are published in American and British newspapers and magazines. The H-MUSEUM NEWS DIGEST service is made available by the editorial staff of H-Museum <[log in to unmask]>.]

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H-MUSEUM NEWS DIGEST (USA, UK)
December 6 - December 12, 2004

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-- December 6
++ American newspapers
At the Fair: Glamour, Parties and Oh Yes, Art
It's been a busy few days for NetJets, the private aviation company: 160 of its luxury planes were to land at Miami International Airport by week's end, more than 10 times the usual number for this time of year. They are ferrying the rich to Art Basel Miami Beach, the contemporary-art fair that has become a fixture on the cultural world's travel schedule in just three years (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/06/arts/design/06fair.web.html

Slave Museum Gains a Collection Built on Captivation
Suffolk Couple Long Fascinated by Relics of Hate
(Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36159-2004Dec4.html

Museum faces challenges in crafting future
A cut in L.A. funding further complicates a folk art institution's determined efforts to continue its mission (Washington Post) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-cafam6dec06,2,1205217.story?coll=cl-art

++ British newspapers
The Turner Prize: What became of past winners?
The most prestigious prize for contemporary art is awarded today. Louise Jury looks back on what winning has meant to the victors of the past 20 years (The Independent) http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=590077

-- December 7
++ American newspapers
Chinese Pottery Yields Leftovers of Stone Age Happy Hour Imagine the long centuries of the Stone Age, when life was, by definition, hard and there was not a tipple to be had. People in the Middle East came to find a pleasing remedy in the marvel of fermentation that turned the grape to wine and barley to beer. About the same time, it seems, the Chinese took a similar step with a cocktail of fermented rice, honey and fruit (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/science/07chin.html

King Tut, Part 2
Do you remember the first time around? Tutankhamun and his hoard came to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1978 and forever changed the way museums did business, not necessarily for the better. There had been major special exhibitions before, but the frenzy over Tut was something extraordinary. Sold-out tickets, long lines, overcrowded galleries - if the objects on display had been any less luminous, any less golden, than they were, they would have been invisible. For the Met, Tutankhamun meant new demographics, new revenues and, in some sense, a new idea of itself. Suddenly it seemed possible to capture audiences of a size limited only by the scale of the museum's cloakroom (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/opinion/07tue2.html

Saatchi vs. Tate: a modern battle
The rivalry between Charles Saatchi, the British advertising magnate and art collector, and Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Modern, is heating up again (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/06/features/tate.html

++ British newspapers
Obituary: Osmund Caine
Artist, teacher, stained-glass designer and 'inventor' of the bikini (The Independnet) http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=590408

-- December 8
++ American newspapers
19 CEOs Named To Black History Museum Council
The Smithsonian Board of Regents yesterday appointed 19 executives to the founding Council of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is scheduled to open in 2013. They also named a group of scholars to an advisory committee that will oversee the content of the White House-backed museum (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45615-2004Dec7.html

++ British newspapers
Islanders on Crete unite to buy work of El Greco
Islanders hope to put right what they regard as a wrong when a hitherto unknown work by the artist, better known as El Greco, goes up for auction (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1368785,00.html

Sculptures shortlisted for place of execution
Tower hopes one of the five shortlisted sculptors will create place of quiet reflection (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1368797,00.html

Treasure trove of photographs casts light on Dahl's dark imagination Fresh details of Dahl's life and times which provide clues to the inspiration behind some of his imaginings have been found in a stash of photographs, most taken by him (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1368680,00.html

Historical fort begins a new era
A new era begins for an historical landmark which moves into the care of English Heritage after transfer was approved by Cumbria County Council (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4076171.stm

-- December 9
++ American newspapers
Obituary: Jewelry Collector, Smithsonian Volunteer Janet Gilka, 84 Janet Bailey Gilka, 84, an antiques and jewelry collector who for many years was considered a den mother to photographers and their families at National Geographic magazine, where her husband was director of photography, died Dec. 6 at Capital Hospice in Arlington. She had ovarian cancer (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49866-2004Dec8.html

Is painting stolen? Museum is on the case
The San Diego Museum of Art has offered to return a painting added to its collection four years ago if it proves to have been stolen from a church in Mexico (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-wk-quick9.2dec09,2,3022978.story?coll=cl-art

Las Chance
Whether one agrees with the assertion in the MOCA retrospective's catalog that "no other postwar American artist can be said to be as influential" as the late Robert Smithson, the effect his art and writing have had on art in the last 30 years is immense. This exhibition, organized and artfully installed by guest curator Eugenie Tsai with MOCA curator Connie Butler, includes a strong selection of 10 of Smithson's gallery pieces from 1968 and 1969 - the famous "nonsites" and "mirror displacements" - as well as drawings, photographs, project proposals and films (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-wk-last9dec09,2,5293758.story?coll=cl-art

++ British newspapers
The Blunkett collection
The Home Office is buying £1m of art for its new building. Guess what it's chosen? (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1370013,00.html

Louvre has Georgia on its mind
The Louvre has revealed that it is in negotiations to open an offshoot in the US (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1369747,00.html

Building on Scotland's heritage
It's time to recreate glory days, says new design body
(The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1369442,00.html

Architecture faculty wins stay of execution
A celebrity campaign to save one of the country's leading architecture departments scented victory yesterday after Cambridge University leaders hinted that the prestigious faculty could be saved (The Independent) http://education.independent.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=591182

Postgraduate Lives: Digging to make a difference
Michelle Waterman, 31, is doing an MA in public archaeology at University College London (The Independent) http://education.independent.co.uk/graduate_options/story.jsp?story=591062

Former No 10 door to be displayed
The old No 10 Downing Street door that Winston Churchill walked through when he was Prime Minister is being installed in a central London museum (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4080319.stm

-- December 10
++ American newspapers
The Met Unveils a Masterpiece, Its Most Expensive Work of Art One of the rarest works - and the most expensive - ever bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art is to go on view Dec. 21. "Madonna and Child" by the early-Renaissance master Duccio di Buoninsegna, which the museum bought last month for more than $45 million, will hang in Gallery Three in the European art galleries on the second floor (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/arts/design/10voge.html

Looking Back at the Flurry on the Far Side
The roiling, polymorphous East Village art scene of the 1980's is ready for its close-up, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art is on hand with a
camera: "East Village USA," a motley, incomplete but remarkable exhibition squeezed into the museum's temporary headquarters in Chelsea (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/arts/design/10smit.html

Showing African Works as They Were Intended
Leontyne Price singing Bach is what I thought of when I saw the Yoruba carving of a seated woman, a child on her back and a big bowl in her hands, in "African Art, African Voices" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. With her tensed stance and closed eyes, she projects the throbbing gravity of that sound (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/arts/design/10cott.html

Obituary: Cleve Gray, 86, a Painter of Large Abstract Works, Dies Cleve Gray, a painter admired for his large-scale, vividly colorful and lyrically gestural abstract compositions, died on Wednesday in Hartford. He was 86. (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/arts/design/10gray.html

That Certain Look: Animal Magnetism
A tribute to "faunal apparel," the show titled "Wild: Fashion Untamed" at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a sumptuous assemblage of fur, feathers, leather and other animal products used to keep humans warm, make them look good and ratchet up their social status (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/arts/design/10cost.html

A Warehouse-Size Tag Sale for Some Big Names of 20th-Century Design Mr. Friedman, a Manhattan dealer specializing in 20th-century European decorative arts, photography, avant-garde paintings and art glass, has been a trendsetter since he started as a dealer in 1967. He introduced the Vienna Secession and mid-20th-century French furniture to a new generation. He has mounted at least 15 exhibitions with catalogs, including "Mackintosh to
Mollino: 50 Years of Chair Design" in 1984. He has had shows on the Bauhaus, Gerrit Rietveld and the painters Fernand Khnopff and Tamara de Lempicka (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/arts/design/10anti.html

A Battle for State Rights
William & Mary Takes On JMU in I-AA Semifinals
This quaint town calls itself the world's largest living history museum: Every day here residents reenact life from the 17th century, complete with colonial dress and carriage and wagon rides down Duke of Glouchester Street. Friday night, they'll be rewriting history at the College of William & Mary, which sits on the western end of the historic district, about a block from the harness-and-saddle shop and shoemaker (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53583-2004Dec9.html

Sculptor Shapes The Symbols Of a City
But nothing like the ones Andy Goldsworthy, the British environmental sculptor, is building in a small garden at the National Gallery of Art (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53854-2004Dec9.html

Exhibit examines race through the lens of whiteness
It's a seldom discussed topic: what it means to be white. But whiteness is a crucial part of any conversation about racism, said the curator of a new exhibition that focuses on the subject (San Francisco Chronicle) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/12/10/entertainment1754EST0691.DTL

Cabinet sells for a record $36 million
An 18th-century ebony cabinet set a world auction record on Thursday, selling at Christie's here for more than £19 million (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/09/features/auction.html

++ British newspapers
Obituary: Robert Pinner
Carpet scholar and collector
(The Independent) http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=591594

-- December 11
++ American newspapers
Obituary: Bertina Carter Hunter, Arts Patron, Has Died at 92 Mary Bertina Carter Hunter, an arts patron and collector who served on New York City's advisory Art Commission under Mayor Abraham D. Beame, died on Nov. 23 in Newport News, Va. A former resident of Greenwich Village, she was 92. Her death was announced by the Studio Museum in Harlem, of which she was a trustee emeritus (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/11/obituaries/11hunter.html

Visitors center for USS Arizona Memorial sinking and cracking under weight of unexpected crowds The USS Arizona Memorial's visitors center was designed to accommodate 750,000 people a year when it was built in 1980, but today it's jammed with crowds more than twice that big -- and it's literally bursting at the seams (San Francisco Chronicle) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/12/11/national1449EST0544.DTL

An urban renaissance in Leipzig
The city's Museum of Fine Arts has begun a fresh chapter in its long and sometimes turbulent history (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/10/features/galloway.html

++ British newspapers
National art treasures go local
People in north Wales will soon be able to view some of the countries national art treasures in their local galleries (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/4083339.stm

-- December 12
++ American newspapers
Nonhegemonic Curating
The opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian this September was a landmark event in the recognition of the history and the plight of native peoples. But the grand opening may prove to be a landmark in the history -- and perhaps the plight -- of museum curating as well (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/magazine/12NON.html

The Wandering Museum
As you might expect from an artist who swims with sperm whales and communes with penguins, Gregory Colbert has dismissed ordinary museums as ''generic sausages,'' too humdrum to display his unusual photos of himself and others romping with animals. So to house his exhibition ''Ashes and Snow,'' Colbert commissioned the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban to create something as unique as the artwork itself. Ban obliged by designing a mammoth museum space consisting almost entirely of empty cargo containers (the walls) and recycled paper tubes (the roof and columns) (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/magazine/12WAND.html?oref=login

Concrete You Can See Through
Concrete has figured heavily in numerous architectural monstrosities, not least because the cheap, durable substance oozes despair and seems to suck up light. But this year, at the National Building Museum in Washington, the architect Aron Losonczi helped rehabilitate concrete's cheerless reputation by demonstrating a new version of the substance more akin to glass than granite (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/magazine/12CONCRETE.html

The Bounty of Caravaggio's Glorious Exile
How many pictures does it take to make a memorable exhibition? Fifty? A hundred? How about 18? That's the number of paintings by Caravaggio that people are lining up to see in Naples in an exhibition that is something of a landmark event. (There is also a coda, five copies of lost works and five recently proposed attributions, though none are convincing.) The reason for the success of this magnificent show has less to do with numbers than with the quality of the works and the period that they document: the last four years of Caravaggio's life, spent peripatetically outside Rome, where he had made a name for himself before he died at 39 of malaria (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/arts/design/12chri.html

Louvre: If you've got it, rent it
It isn't about art; it's about money. And the Louvre - the be-all, end-all repository of art in Paris - is merely the latest in a parade of museums to raise funds by renting part of its collection to a cash-rich, art-poor institution (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-artsnotes12.1dec12,2,2331947.story?coll=cl-art

Saatchi: latest
The Tate has responded to Charles Saatchi's revelations in The Art Newspaper that he had offered to donate his entire collection to the gallery. Director Sir Nicholas Serota understood that a loan was being proposed, and that "at no point was there any suggestion that it was being offered as a gift." He informed his chairman, then David Verey, but the verbal offer was not formally discussed by the trustees (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11680

Prince of Liechtenstein buys Badminton Cabinet for over £19 million The finest piece of 18th-century Florentine crftsmanship will go on public show in Vienna museum next year (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11679

Louvre goes global
The French museum is to open a branch at the High Museum in Atlanta by 2006 (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11673

An art gallery in Ceausescu's Palace in Bucharest
The Romanian National Museum of Contemporary Art has opened in a wing of the vast building (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11672

++ British newspapers
Academy falls into another fine art mess
The Royal Academy of Arts, the body that has represented Britain's leading artists for more than 200 years, is facing a grave financial crisis (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,,1372051,00.html

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